Brazil reported record number of COVID-19 deaths for second day in a row: 1,910 in past 24 hours

Brazil, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic globally, broke a new daily record of coronavirus deaths on Wednesday by registering 1,910 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the report published by the ministry of health.

It is the second day in a row that the Latin American giant has reached a daily death record, after 1641 published Tuesday.

According to the results of the Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths due to covid-19 has risen to 259,271 since March 12, when the first death was recorded in Brazil.

For his part, this Wednesday too 71,704 new cases were recorded in 24 hours, the second worst number since the first case of covid-19 in February 2020, bringing the total number of infections to 10.7 million.

In the past seven days, an average of 1,331 people have died each day, also a new mark after the one registered on Tuesday. Since January, the country has failed to reduce the 1,000 deaths per day, as happened between June and August of last year.

Brazil nears collapse of its public health system, with more than half of the country’s states at the limit of their capacity, as pressure grows for President Jair Bolsonaro to take drastic action to contain the explosion of infections.

The country is having its worst moment of the pandemic since the first contagion on February 26, 2020, also coinciding with the emergence of the Amazonian variant (P.1), more transmissible, according to preliminary studies.

Since November, the curve of cases and deaths has risen worryingly, but it has acquired dramatic connotations over the past 40 days, a period in which the daily average of deaths has not fallen below a thousand.

If in the first wave the evolution of the pandemic was heterogeneous, in this second, more virulent and deadly, SARS-CoV-2 brought more than half of the country under control at the same time.

The occupancy rate of intensive care units in the public health system exceeds 80% in 19 of the 27 Brazilian states, with a nuance: there are more and more young people with serious photos.

“The risk of collapse exists and we are already seeing it in different parts of the country,” he told the agency. EFE doctor Carlos starling, scientific consultant of the Brazilian Society of Infectology (SBI).

After months of easing, regional and municipal governments have tightened distancing measures, such as non-essential business closures and nighttime curfews, to avoid the January collapse in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas State.

The rich state of São Paulo, which with 46 million inhabitants is the most populous, on Wednesday declared the return for two weeks to the “ red phase ” of restrictions, which only allows the operation of essential activities in the areas of health, food and public transport, as well as in schools and churches.

“We will face the two worst weeks since March of last year”, when the disease left the first of the already more than 257,000 deaths that the country accumulates, declared the governor of São Paulo Joao Doria.

Amazonas, where the new variant has appeared and whose hospital structure has been historically precarious, saw its health system overwhelmed in a few weeks. He even lacked oxygen. Since, Hundreds of COVID-19 patients have been transferred to other parts of the country for treatment.

Now other states are on their way to this stage, such as Santa Catarina and Minas Gerais, who have already had to transfer several of their patients to other regions of Brazil due to the lack of places in their hospitals.

“The outlook is not good. What we saw in Manaus, we will certainly see in other parts of Brazil, ”warned Starling.

The second wave also comes at a time when the number of intensive care beds funded by the Ministry of Health has been gradually reduced. Few of the field hospitals are still standing.

As of December, 12,003 intensive care beds for COVID-19 were funded by the government; in January, 7,717, and in February, which ended as the second month with the highest number of deaths from the disease in Brazil, 3,187, according to data from the National Council of Secretaries of Health (Conass).

Vaccination began in Brazil in January and is progressing slowly, with interruptions due to lack of doses.

President Bolsonaro reiterated in the morning his criticism of social distancing measures, because of their impact on the economy. “They created a panic, didn’t they? The problem is there, we are sorry. But you cannot live in panic. What [tampoco] with home politics, again. Are people going to die of hunger, of depression? The president told his supporters outside the Alvorada presidential palace in Brasilia.

With information from EFE and AFP

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